Going public with lighting
Jill Entistle looks at how lighting public spaces is changing
Words by Jill Entwistle
The association of darkness with crime and/or a disproportionate preoccuption with health and safety has resulted in a tendency to overlight public spaces. However, cranking up light levels in one place means they have to be raised in the adjacent area if that is not to appear murky by contrast, and so begins an arms race that does nothing for the carbon count or the conduciveness of the space.
But lighting designers are beginning to exert a restraining influence over those who are concerned to tick whatever light level box has been deemed appropriate by the latest standard. Common sense is starting to prevail as a few proof-inthe- pudding schemes demonstrate that carefully layered and orchestrated lighting can produce both a safe and aesthetically pleasing space.
Light is also being used more playfully, from the now quite widespread use of gobo projectors to produce dappling and patterning to the full-on use of an interactive colour installation to transform a formerly intimidating dark street.
Kings Cross square,
Lighting design: Studiofractal
The regeneration of the King's Cross area has been radical and ambitious, the largest area of urban redevelopment in Europe. Its gateway is King's Cross Square, London's busiest transport interchange that deals with 140,000 people a day.
The all-LED lighting scheme, shortlisted for a Lighting Design Award, was key to providing a strong visual identity, helping with orientation and creating an environment to encourage commuters to linger. With thousands of people hurrying through the space, safe and functional lighting was crucial but that had to be balanced with creating a pleasant lit experience.
Bearing in mind that the clients were Network Rail, London Underground, Camden City Council, Islington City Council, TfL and English Heritage, each of them with a different set of lighting standards - all with varying criteria for luminance, illuminance, permissible colour appearance and colour rendering - and the scale of the lighting task becomes clear.
The essence of the scheme lies in integration and, by layering the lighting from a number of directions, creating the illusion that light levels are higher than they are. 'This is deliberate and ensures the vertical and horizontal lighting is as even as possible - and yet the appearance is that it varies greatly,' says Studiofractal's Tim Downey. 'This is a good trick - in the darker areas there is more light than you would think, but in the brighter areas it is not as high as you would imagine. Much has been written about horizontal illumination levels, but the key here is vertical illumination and how bright the space feels.'
It's a beast of a space to light so there had to be a primary fitting that would provide the basic layer of illumination. The majority of light comes from three 20m stainless steel columns specially made by iGuzzini. Each houses an array of individually focused LED spotlights strategically positioned to align with the historic station frontage. There are dual sources: one gives focused, controlled downward illumination and the other provides a backlighting element to reduce contrast and even out the appearance.
'The arrays were carefully designed to provide a low glare, crisply functional appearance against the warmly glowing facade,' says Downey. 'Great effort went into placing and scaling them correctly, and then conducting an exhaustive detailed design process to ensure they had the right feeling of permanence, solidity and elegance. The aim was to create a very soft field of illumination across the square - without the glare often associated with these types of exterior lighting installations.'
The Big Picture
Part of the £550m redevelopment of King's Cross, King's Cross Square has had major structural changes. The scheme now reveals the brick facade of Lewis Cubitt's 1852 railway station behind a 7,000 sq m plaza. Architecture practice Stanton Williams replanned the station entries and exits to ease movement, and incorporated three large London Underground services structures. These are clad in the same granite as the plaza and incorporate a variety of service functions and retail activities. The lighting remit included the main square, new entrances, and exits and colonnades from King's Cross platforms.
Architect: Stanton Williams
Station architect: John McAslan and Partners
Engineer: Arup
Contractor: Murphy and Sons
Richard-Wagner-Platz, Leipzig, Germany
Lighting design: Licht Kunst Licht
The winner of the 2014 city.people.lights award, Richard-Wagner-Platz is the historic site of a 10th-century market settlement from which the city developed.
The lighting concept involved the traffic lighting system of the nearby streets, the actual plaza, including skatepark and fountains, and the private facade of the Höfe am Brühl shopping centre.
The central aim of the scheme was to keep clutter to a minimum so that cyclist and pedestrian pathways could be kept clear and the square used for markets and events, so pole-top fittings were avoided where possible. Illuminance had to be between eight and 18 lux.
The plaza and walkways around the entire section of Höfe am Brühl are lit by simple pillar luminaires, which provide general illumination for the pedestrian walkways but also have extra modules to light exterior facades from the public space. These were also used for the skatepark and parts of the open plaza. Warm white LEDs are used for the buildings, sculptural fountains and the skatepark.
The projecting entrance of the shopping centre allowed the incorporation of overhead lighting, which illuminates the public space directly in front and avoids the need for pole-top luminaires that would have cluttered the facade. The existing historic light columns along the classic facade of the Grosser Blumberg building were preserved and updated with LED modules.
The scheme was unusually democratic in the degree to which the local citizenry were consulted. A public competition was launched to redesign the lighting through a democratic decision process. 'The project is an excellent example of how to involve citizens and other stakeholders in the preparation of an urban regeneration project,' said Rainer Barth, representative of the city.
Place Du Château, Strasbourg, France
Lighting design: L'Acte Lumiere
A primary aim of the lighting was to knit together the historical buildings and the contemporary square that form the Place du Chateau, part of the Grande-Île, a Unesco World Heritage site. The highly integrated scheme, third-prize winner in the city.
people.light awards, was created by L'Acte Lumiere with the city's public lighting department over a six-year period, and involved extensive public consultation.
The scheme makes bold use of light and shadow. The vertical lighting around the square reflects off the light-coloured ground surface allowing general lighting levels to be reduced, and creating large areas of attractive shadowing. White light is used in various degrees of intensity to emphasise the architectural styles of the buildings and rich variety of stonework, and create areas of shadow and contrasting light effects.
The square itself is lit by four bespoke masts, with a hexagonal design inspired by the stairways running up the cathedral steeple. The incorporated floodlights also project subtle graphic elements on to the ground features, reflecting the contrasting patterns used in highlighting the facades.
Opera House Lane, Wellington, New Zealand
Lighting design: Stephenson and Turner
A runner-up in the city.people.light awards, this interactive lighting scheme by architecture and engineering practice Stephenson and Turner was designed to make a dark, narrow street safer and more attractive for pedestrians. Presence detectors are used to trigger the RGB LED lighting installation, animating the space with dynamic patterns and muted colours.
The scheme also features a chandelier - constructed from Kaynemaile, a lightweight chainmail created for The Lord of the Rings films - which creates 'dreamlike' projected effects.
